Spain and Holland; Places to go?

[Frog_BR]

Hey folks. Being a lurker for most of the time, I only now decided to post, reasoning of being confused to what do.

Me and a friend or 2 (Still seeing if he will be able heh) are dead set for a trip to Europe. After much planning, about money, places to go, best value to squeeze from our money, food, etc, we narrowed down to Spain and Holland, via low cost travels, and local international buses and trains companies.

And now what? :confused:

Where to go? We're looking for advices and suggestions, being us both not fabulously rich (Think 500-800 Euros budget...for 22-1month time. We got the spirit, no worries, sleeping bags and gas stoves for maximum savings are common grounds), but like minded... And that is, we're looking for party, socials, beach, etc. Not keen on tourism, but its not out of the question I guess.

Where to go?

We need references, Marbella? Girona? La Manca? Barcelona? etc? Any personal experience? Advicing? Do's? Don't's? What would be a great place to go and stay for a week or 2 in Spain, and then a week or 2 in Holland.

If some of you nice folks could help out, much appreciated :) Would help for further phases of the plannings (places to stay).

Cheers!

[Wyetry]

if you got to girona go down to the coast (tis about a 20 min drive) and there are lots of beautiful villages really unlike anywhere else in spain - i went a few years ago and they had hardly changed from when my dad went in the 1960's. Searching for llanfranc.

Otherwise I really dont' know that much at all about spain - Zaragosa was quite nice and also the north-west which hardly any english people go to but lots of spanish do as its not so hot in the summer as the south of spain (which is sillily hot) - its still lovely sunbathing weather.

The Netherlands is fun - if I was you I would cycle round its really flat and totally set up for cycling plus there are lots of campsites and stuff and if its hot the beaches are really nice to go to as well as the towns - i woudl consider going there before spain though incase the weather is reallly cold - which it can be.

Also there are a couple of festivals in both spain and the netherlands in the summer which could be good to combine!

[Thunderstruck]

Don't really know Holland that well but I'd recommend The Hague, Haarlem and Rotterdam. Avoid Amsterdam like the plague.

As far as Spain goes, Madrid is too hot at this time of year and in my opinion best in the winter.

Barcelona is fun but too full of tourists for my liking.

If you want something a bit more off the beaten track, I'd recommend Salamanca - perhaps my favourite city in the world. It's the main university city of Spain, has two stunning cathedrals, loads of young people and the vibe is superb. Plus no Brits or Yanks which is nice.

From Salamanca you can also go to nice places like Segovia, Avila and Cacares. Avila is especially impressive.

[Frog_BR]

While unrecommended as it seems, Amsterdan will be the way to go :O Mostly because we just recently enabled a house for us to stay, courtesy of a old time lady friend :)

And now Spain... We look for places, in reference, think Ibiza. Explosive (perhaps even too much sometimes). Salamanca seems nice, anything else folks? Time to start googling locations :)

And btw, we are portuguese, so the language barrier is null, portuguese easily understand spanish (which doesnt apply the other way around, oddly for us).

[katchika]

I would miss out Zaragoza although it's 10 years since I was there.

Granada is awesome, most of the cities in Andalucia are great like Seville etc.